“What peer review group would have recommended funding Nièpce in 1815 to do research on a method for producing pictures from elements of electromagnetic radiation, if he had claimed this research would lead to an analysis of the composition of the stars, a description of the internal machinery of cells, the form and structure of microbes and molecules, a method for diagnosing pregnancy by sound and cancers by radioactive imaging and, for good measure, the establishment of a motion picture industry, computerized tomographic brain scans, television and instantaneous news reports from around the world by satellite projection? Nièpce could never have been funded through a peer review system — all he had was a dream, an inspiration, a passion and a conviction. These sorts of things are for artists; they are not the stuff of discovery and certainly not a basis on which to fund research.” ― Bede Morris

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch